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My BCE Datewheel design


szvwj

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Andreww: I know what you mean as far as the "boldness" of the font. I'm going to have to work with the shop and adjust my artwork to get a good final product. I'm curious to see if it ends up more or less bold when it's finally done.

I think I'll go with what I have for now and see what comes back. My fingers are crossed, I hope this works. Thanks everyone for the input, I'll let you know how it turns out.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Here's the latest:

Over the past several weeks, I've been begging for and/or purchasing ETA7750 datewheels, stripping them, re-painting them, and researching marking options. Most marking methods I've found would probably work, but are just too expensive. It's the old quality verses price dilemma.

I've had some samples made, but they looked really bad. I'm hoping that I was just pursuing the wrong marking method (a bit of a waste of time, but a good learning experience).

I just (like 30 minutes ago) sent some sample datewheels off to be marked using a different process. The guy seems to think that he can mark them "no problem". I've seen some of his work and it looks awesome (he marks medical instruments). He's going to mark two for free to show me how they'll look. I hope they turn out, I also hope that if I want more, they won't cost a fortune.

I should know more in a week or two, stay tuned....

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I finally got a sample back from the print shop (they do Pad printing). I'm sorry to say that it didn't turn out as well as I had hoped. From 12" away it looks ok, but close up, not so good. I'll see if I can work with them to get higher quality, or maybe go to another shop. In the mean time I might install it in my BCE to check for alignment.

I was so excited to get this sample, I really thought it was going to look perfect, I'm a bit bummed, I guess I have more work to do.

Getting these things marked is much more difficult than I expected.

datewheel_printed_2.jpg

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Can you tell me what the correct font color should be? I had him make these samples with black ink (just to see how it would turn out), but if I ever figure out how to make these, I'd like to use the correct color.

Thanks

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I thought I'd try (again) applying the artwork using a water-slide decal. I think I'm going to officially ditch this idea (see photo). I simply can't get it aligned correctly. I made a fixture and I printed alignment lines and circles, but the darn stuff just stretches and deforms when I try to overlay it on top of the date wheel. In addition, it shrinks as it dries (just a tiny bit, but enough). Maybe a more skilled person could make this work, but I can't seem to.

I looked into having them silk-screened, but even with the finest mesh, they can't provide the resolution I want.

I'm going to pursue the pad printing method a bit more before I give up, but I'm running out of options.

datewheel_waterslide_decal.jpg

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I think you need a matte white base primer on the wheel before you apply the ink. I think the surface is too smooth that is why the ink looks blotchy. It is still an improvement over your previous attempts.

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